We’re about a month away from an official number, but estimates for next year’s COLA are moving higher.
Social Security may be the most valuable retirement asset most Americans have. The pension for retired workers accounted for 20% of families’ total wealth in 2022, according to a study by the Congressional Budget Office. That’s based on a calculation valuing all future payments at present value.
Those future payments get a boost every year, which could make them even more valuable to Americans. The annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) helps benefits keep up with inflation. And while we won’t have the official 2026 COLA number until mid-October, it looks like it’ll come in higher than what analysts anticipated at the start of the year.
But a bigger COLA isn’t necessarily reason for Social Security recipients to celebrate. Here’s what retirees need to know.
Image source: Getty Images.
What’s pushing the 2026 COLA higher?
The annual COLA is based on a standard measure of inflation published every month by the Bureau of Labor Statistics called the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, or CPI-W.
The CPI-W is one of several Consumer Price Index measurements the government publishes. The BLS surveys thousands of businesses and households across the country to collect pricing data on over 200 line items. Those prices are then indexed to a standard price from when the BLS first started collecting data, and weighted according to typical spending patterns of the group the index is supposed to follow. In the case of the CPI-W, the basket of goods represents the spending of working-age adults living in cities.
The Social Security Administration calculates the COLA by taking the average year-over-year increase in the CPI-W during the third quarter, i.e. July, August, and September. The BLS just published August’s CPI numbers on Sept. 11, with the CPI-W climbing 2.8% year over year. That follows a 2.5% increase in July. The final reading to determine the 2026 COLA will come out on Oct. 15.
Based on expectations for that reading, both The Senior Citizen’s League and independent analyst Mary Johnson have published their expectations for next year’s COLA. The former expects it to come in at 2.7% while the latter expects retirees to receive a 2.8% bump. Both estimates are higher than the 2.5% initial estimate The Senior Citizen’s League published before the start of the year.
The reasons for a higher COLA are bad news for 70 million beneficiaries
A bigger-than-expected raise is usually great news for those receiving it, but in the case of Social Security’s 70 million beneficiaries, it signals a challenging economic environment.
The biggest challenge is that the CPI-W doesn’t perfectly match the spending of most seniors. Most people don’t spend their money in retirement the same way they did when they were working age. They probably commute less and spend less on new clothing. They probably have different dining habits. And it’s almost certain that their medical bills have climbed higher as they grow older.
To that end, some of the biggest expenses seniors face are climbing faster than the overall CPI-W numbers. Medical care services were notably 4.2% higher this August than the year before. While gasoline prices were down, utilities were way up. Shelter expenses climbed 3.6%. Despite a 2.7% or 2.8% raise coming in January, most seniors have seen their real cost of living climb much more over the past year.
Rising medical costs are most prominently seen in the Medicare Trustees’ estimate for next year’s Medicare Part B premium. They expect the program will have to charge a standard monthly premium of $206.20 next year, an 11.5% increase from 2025. For those keeping track, that far outpaces the expectations for Social Security’s COLA. Beneficiaries age 65 and older enrolled in Medicare will see that amount come right out of their new monthly payments.
The Senior Citizens League contends this situation isn’t unique to this year’s COLA. It ran a study that estimates the buying power of someone’s benefits who started Social Security in 2010 has decreased 20% through 2024.
The best economic environment for Social Security has historically been slow, steady, and predictable inflation. Under the current administration, which has gone back and forth on trade policies numerous times since the start of the year, prices have become anything but predictable. While many businesses have taken preemptive steps to curb and delay the impact of tariffs, the costs will eventually get passed through to consumers. That could result in even more pain for those on a fixed income next year.
While a 2.7% or 2.8% raise might be bigger than anticipated, many seniors may find that it doesn’t go far enough next year.
Malawians will vote for a new president, parliament members, and local councillors on September 16 after five years of economic challenges and natural disasters. Analysts predict a competition between President Lazarus Chakwera and former President Peter Mutharika. The main issues for voters are outlined here:
Economic Stagnation
Malawi, one of the poorest countries, has seen its economy stagnate since the 2020 elections, with the World Bank predicting only 2% growth this year. This marks the fourth consecutive year where the population has grown faster than the economy. An IMF program ended in May without achieving macroeconomic stability, with plans to negotiate a new program after elections. Inflation has been over 20% for three years, making essentials unaffordable. Protests occurred this year due to high inflation affecting jobs, and over 70% of Malawians live below the poverty line of $3 per day.
Corruption
Malawi has seen a long series of corruption scandals stretching back more than a decade.
Chakwera has talked tough on fighting graft since becoming head of state in 2020, but he has been criticised for handling cases selectively and corruption scandals have continued under his watch.
Hunger and Failed Harvests
Malawi has faced severe hunger crises, with millions of its people requiring food assistance last year after a severe regional drought destroyed harvests.
In 2023, one of the deadliest storms to hit Africa in the last two decades, Cyclone Freddy, also wiped out crops and caused food shortages.
Malawi’s population is especially vulnerable to extreme weather events as the majority of its population of 22 million is reliant upon subsistence agriculture for food.
Fuel Shortages
Malawians have become used to queuing for hours at fuel stations because of shortages.
In an address to the nation this week Chakwera apologised for the scarcity of fuel, alleging sabotage by officials at the state oil company. The opposition says government mismanagement is to blame.
This is 2025 and cryptocurrency is now a full fledge financial force globally. Volatility and regulation have become a thing of the past. Today, crypto market participants are looking for innovative technologies to invest in new concepts and new strategies. One such innovation is the combination of CEX and DEX under one roof, namely the BYDFi. This platform offers the most comprehensive, secure, and user-friendly experience by being your one-stop social trading platform.
How is this possible? BYDFi has launched MoonX, a Web3 trading tool that combines the efficiency of centralized exchanges (CEX) with the freedom of decentralized exchanges (DEX). This innovation is sure to change the course of 2025 crypto trading. Let’s discuss what the dual engine strategy has to offer.
Is BYDFi Your Average Social Trading Platform?
BYDFi is a platform that perfectly reflects the philosophy “BUIDL Your Dream Finance.” This platform has played a major role since its launch as BitYard in 2020. However, this platform was more than “BitYard,” so the company decided to recalibrate its strategy for a broader vision and mission that is to empower individual investors. Hence, named it BYDFi – BUIDL Your Dream Finance.
If you are familiar with the word BUIDL in the crypto sector, you will know its true meaning that is more than ‘building.’ BUIDL means an active participation and contribution to the growth of decentralization and its future. While staying true to its philosophy, BYDFi expanded to over 500 spot trading pairs by May 2021, and this was just one milestone.
Later on, this platform introduced perpetual contract trading with flexible leverage up to 200x by August 2022. In fact, the dedication and consistency of this platform were recognized by Forbes as one of the world’s top 10 crypto exchanges in December 2023. Isn’t it beyond social trading?
Inside BYDFi’s CEX
Let us tell you what makes it work. Integrating a centralized exchange in BYDFi was to meet the demands of a diverse user base. But this also comes with its advantages, like offering a vast set of trading options for experienced and inexperienced traders. For example:
In spot trading, BYDFi offers over 700 cryptocurrencies, including popular assets like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), along with emerging assets like “100x GEMs” that are not available on other exchanges.
In perpetual contracts, BYDFi offers over 400 contract pairs with flexible leverage up to 200x. Typically, exchanges offer 100x or 125x leverage, but BYDFi’s leverage game is higher for better potential returns and greater flexibility.
In copy trading, this platform helps users to follow their choice of crypto traders, with a low trading threshold of just $10. Traders can flexibly choose between isolated or cross margin options.
In automated trading tools, the platform offers Spot Investment, Martingale, and Spot/Futures Grid for users to execute their desired strategies easily and precisely.
The Accessibility of BYDFi’s CEX
The users should be excited because the platform supports multiple payment options, including credit/debit cards, bank transfers, and partnerships with leading third-party providers like Apple Pay, Google Pay, Banxa, Transak, and Mercuryo. Users won’t find it difficult to convert their fiat into crypto.
Also, there are amazing offers for newcomers, for example, the Welcome Package that is worth up to 8,100 USDT for just setting up 2FA and joining the community. Besides, users can quickly start trading as the platform requires no KYC for most functions.
The Security and Regulatory Compliance of BYDFi’s CEX
By the ‘no KYC for most functions’ statement, you might be wondering about the platform’s security. Well, to let you know, security and compliance are uncompromised matters for any reputable CEX, and BYDFi stands by its integrity.
It has dual MSB licenses in the US and Canada (US MSB Registration No. – 31000215482431 / Canada FINTRAC MSB Registration No. – M22636235) and is a proud member of South Korea’s CODE VASP Alliance, adhering to stringent global financial standards.
Besides compliance, BYDFi has top-tier security measures such as storing user digital currencies offline in cold storage wallets, multi-party transaction approvals, segregated accounts where user funds are held separately from operational capital, and strict whitelisting to prevent unauthorized withdrawals. In fact, the platform backs its assets with at least 1:1 reserves, reinforced in October 2024.
BYDFi’s CEX With MoonX
It’s no wonder that BYDFi’s CEX is a strong foundation that crypto participants want, but the sector is focusing on Memecoins. This demand necessitated the strategic integration of decentralized trading in BYDFi. In April 2025, the platform officially launched MoonX, which is a Web3 on-chain trading tool designed for the thriving Memecoin market.
MoonX is the apple of the eye for “Degen traders” who seek fast, high-risk, and high-reward trading. This tool has an ultra-smooth trading experience, so users can follow “smart money” and “snipe” the next 1000x potential Memecoin. Since these are the initial times of MoonX, it supports the Solana and BNB Chain ecosystems with an astounding 500,000+ Memecoin trading pairs. MoonX also offers the following advantages:
The tool’s listing mechanism lets users trade the latest Memecoins first for early entry opportunities. The users get extensive memecoin market coverage with the flexibility of millisecond execution and minimal slippage.
With MoonX, users get access to professional-grade trading tools that offer one-click buy/sell, limit & market orders, take-profit & stop-loss, etc. It also offers the “Sell Half on a Double” strategy for a risk-free holding.
This platform’s one-click Smart Money Copy Trading feature helps to track and mirror the trades of whales, KOLs, and institutional investors. Besides, there is an option of ‘Trending Memecoin Rankings by Category’ on the platform to get real-time blockchain data and smart money patterns.
MoonX’s latest major upgrade, “Alpha,” identifies the most active and trending Memecoins based on on-chain trading behavior, community sentiment, and capital inflow data.
MoonX’s Security Structure
This collaborates with Safeheron and uses MPC (Multi-Party Computation) & TEE (Trusted Execution Environment) technology to develop the industry’s most advanced decentralized key management solution. In addition, MoonX provides secure trading across devices with GoPlus, a third-party security audit authority, which conducts real-time security audits for on-chain pairs and sends alerts when they may be unsafe, preventing many scams like Rug Pulls and phishing.
Dual-Engine Strategy Of BYDFi Is Shaping 2025 Crypto Trading
The combo of CEX and DEX eliminates the limitations of singular models and offers the capabilities of both to revitalize the concepts in the 2025 Crypto Trading Market.
CEX Efficiency & Deep Liquidity Aggregation
First of all, BYDFi’s CEX serves as the primary engine for institutional-grade efficiency and liquidity. The strategy behind this is to use the matching engine that can process millions of transactions per second. This will give minimal latency and slippage even during extreme market volatility.
Order books with deep liquidity for a wide array of well-known cryptocurrencies and elaborate derivatives (such as perpetual futures with up to 200x leverage), enabling large volume trades with better price discovery and fee competitiveness. This centralized parallel provides a deep and orderly structure with the necessary stability and capital efficiency.
Decentralized Innovation & Permissionless Market Access via MoonX
MoonX serves to address the expanding, complex, and sometimes even chaotic Web3 ecosystem, starting with the emergent Memecoin market. MoonX is not like traditional DEXs or even DEX aggregators. MoonX is not a DEX simply for on-chain swapping. Rather, it is an on-ramp that has been enabled for permissionless innovation. It provides direct access to the “long-tail” of new high-prospect tokens, where the CEX performance has been slow and unmanageable. With direct integrations with blockchain networks such as Solana and BNB Chain, MoonX offers actual on-chain ownership, direct interaction, and transparency.
The Unified Trading Nexus, The Synergy
BYDFi is outstanding because it clears the “CEX vs DEX” dilemma. The platform’s dual-engine approach makes it a unified account. Thus, the user experience is no longer disparate and disjointed like most crypto ecosystems. BYDFi lets users trade CEX and on-chain on the same platform, with an easy user interface. With this platform, users do not have to independently manage various wallets, UIs, and pools of different assets for centralized and on-chain trading.
It has a single easy-to-navigate display with centralized exchange accounts and Web3 on-chain tools. The unified feature also gives the freedom and flexibility to exchange or transfer assets as per the user’s liking.
BYDFi’s Commitment to the Future of Crypto Trading
BYDFi’s dual-engine approach is a living ecosystem. The BYDFi platform is always updating and innovating to be the best service within the industry. To demonstrate, in February of 2025, BYDFi expanded its offerings through a strategic partnership with hardware wallet provider Ledger by jointly launching the BYDFi co-branded wallet to secure user assets with self-custody better.
Conclusion
BYDFi has a user-centric philosophy that is reflected in its 24/7 customer support via live chat and email. This shows the platform is willing to be a pioneer of 2025 Crypto Trading. This platform is raising a new generation of traders with opportunities, security, and a user experience.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not provide financial advice. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile, and the market can be unpredictable. Always perform thorough research before making any cryptocurrency-related decisions.
The ASEAN region is often cited as a successful example of regional cooperation. The ASEAN regional bloc consisting of 10 South East Asian countries — Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. It was founded in 1967 with the founding members of the organisation being Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand.
ASEAN’s economic achievements
The South-East Asian regional bloc has also been an engine of global growth. Even amidst the economic challenges in recent years, the average growth rate of the group was well over 4% in 2024. While Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam recorded growth of over 5%, Vietnam was the star performer growing at over 7%. According to forecasts, Vietnam is likely to comfortably surpass 6% growth in 2025 and 2026. While the foundations for these successes have been laid over decades, one of the reasons for the economic progress of these nations has been their ability to adapt to geopolitical and economic changes.
The ASEAN region has benefited significantly from globalisation, especially countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam.If one were to look at regional trade within the ASEAN group, it was estimated at $3.5 trillion. ASEAN, which has robust economic relations with US and China, has also focused on enhancing trade with non-member countries.
ASEAN has also excelled in terms of attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). In 2023, ASEAN’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows exceeded $200 billion (230 billion). Thus, the regional bloc has emerged as the largest recipient of FDI in developing regions. The star performers, in terms of drawing FDI, in recent years of the ASEAN region have been Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam. While earlier the successes of Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia drew international attention in recent years it is Vietnam’s economic success which has begun to draw attention. The successes of these countries can be attributed to investor friendly policies, increasing focus on R &D and tech, their geographical location and as mentioned their deftness in dealing with the changing landscape. So far, most ASEAN nations have steered clear of getting embroiled in geopolitical wrangling between China and the US. In recent months, several ASEAN countries have expressed their concern in the context of the downward spiral of ties between both countries.
ASEAN Soft Power
Apart from robust economic performance, the ASEAN grouping has also been reasonably successful in promoting their Soft Power. According to the Brand Finance Soft Power rankings 2025, Singapore ranked 21 globally was ranked the highest in the ASEAN region. It would be pertinent to point out, that rich and diverse culture of the region along with a tourist friendly eco-system has resulted in ASEAN being a preferred destination from tourists across the world. Apart from Singapore and Thailand, other popular tourist destinations in the region are; Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia and Vietnam. Recent years have witnessed a significant increase in the number of Indian tourists visiting the ASEAN region.
One of the strong components of ASEAN power has been tourism. According to estimates, the ASEAN region was able to attract 123 million tourists in 2024. Six ASEAN countries — Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Myanmar — are also proposing a joint visa initiative dubbed as “6 countries, 1 destination”. This will be a common visa like Schengen. The idea was proposed by Thailand, which is heavily dependent upon tourism and believes that this initiative would give a further boost to tourism.
Some countries have also been able to draw international students. With western countries becoming more inward looking, there is scope for ASEAN countries like Singapore and Malaysia to attract international students. Singapore has emerged as a popular destination for students due to some of its higher education educations being highly ranked as well as the career avenues in that country. Malaysia received over 80,000 student application from international students – this was a 25% increase from 2023. Both ASEAN countries could become especially attractive destinations for more South Asian students for whom countries in the Anglosphere have been favoured.
ASEAN member states reaction to Trump’s imposition of tariffs
ASEAN nations have expressed their scepticism regarding the deterioration in US-China ties, since they have close economic ties with both. Apart from this, all have been extremely critical of tariffs and are looking to diversify their relationships. The Singapore PM, Lawrence Wong, while commenting on the recent tariffs announced by US President, Donald Trump said:
“..the recent Liberation Day announcement by the US leaves no room for doubt,…It marks a seismic change in the global order.”
ASEAN interest in BRICS in a changing situation
In the changing situation, it is likely that more ASEAN countries will also explore membership of BRICS+. Indonesia had joined BRICS in January 2025 as a member, while other ASEAN member states – Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam – joined as observers in October 2024. Indonesian foreign minister, Sugiono after joining BRICS had said that it’s decision to join BRICS+ was a reiteration of its independent foreign policy. Other ASEAN countries are also exploring the possibility of entering BRICS.
Conclusion
In conclusion, as mentioned earlier the ASEAN region has so far reaped the dividends of globalisation and a reasonably stable relationship between US and China for very long. The current geopolitical and economic situation is likely to pose significant challenges for the ASEAN region. Apart from internal contradictions within the Bloc, global uncertainty due to US policies during Trump 2.0 are likely to be a major challenge. While all eyes are on the economic impact of the current global turbulence, it is important for ASEAN to focus on ‘Soft Power’, since the region has specific potential in areas like tourism and education as has been discussed earlier. It remains to be seen whether ASEAN can effectively use “Smart Power” to deal with the changing global landscape.
